SirPleb
Shaken, not stirred.
I am hoping that someone (Dan? 
) can answer a question about the Domination victory condition: Is it intentional that this victory condition is very difficult to predict?
To my mind, there are two things about this victory condition which when combined can make it a game-wrecker at times. I suspect that one of these issues is an unintentional oversight and that the other is a bug. If I'm wrong about this please let us know. It would be very helpful to know whether this behavior is intentional.
The issues are:
1) There appear to be bugs in the way Domination is calculated. The Civilopedia says "Have 66% of the world's land surface within your borders." Anecdotal evidence and some testing by a couple of players has shown that the actual threshold is usually larger, often 80% or more. The percentage feels like it is different depending on map size and type. It seems that coastal tiles count in addition to land at least some of the time. And there have been at least two games reported where the Domination victory occurred at a time when a player's borders did not expand, indicating that something other than "within your borders" is also sometimes involved.
2) There does not seem to be a way for the player to know when a Domination victory is imminent. This is very different in game feel from all the other victory conditions. With all other victory conditions, it is possible to see a win or loss coming. The player can savor the satisfaction of closing in on a goal. Or can see defeat coming and can try to avoid it. The Retirement date is emphasized and there is a warning as it approaches. Approaching a conquest win or loss is obvious. There are messages about other Civs' space race progress. The player gets a chance to control the UN and when controlling it decides whether voting occurs. There is displayed information about city culture values (the player's and the rivals'), and the Histograph can be used to see whether and when a total culture score victory/loss could happen. But Domination? There's no information anywhere. One can be in the middle of an exciting war, anticipating the next military success, and wham! A Domination "victory" happens. When it happens that way it does not feel like victory at all, it can be a frustrating disappointment.
The second issue is made much worse by the first. I have not found it possible to "eyeball" the map and to make any decent guess as to when Domination might occur.
So, to re-state the question a bit differently, is it intentional that there is a victory condition which the player cannot attempt to precisely anticipate and control? I hope not - to my mind it is important in the game to be able to anticipate success or failure.
A final request related to this: If you determine that there are bugs related to the Domination victory condition, please consider NOT fixing them. If they were fixed in a future patch, that could "break" many saved games (games in progress, HOF entries) from prior versions. If the Domination threshold were changed, people would find that loading some past saves would instantly trigger it. Instead of fixing any bug(s) in this area, I think it would be great just to tell us what the rule actually is. And much more importantly, to provide a way for us to see it coming. It doesn't matter so much what the rule is, what matters is that we can see it coming. One suggestion in this regard: a possible place for this information would be the Histograph. A new choice in the "Show" drop-down for "Domination". That would make it easy to see if any Civ is approaching the 2/3 limit. (Or whatever value the limit actually is.) That would not be as precise as an actual number somewhere, but it would be sufficient to see the victory/loss coming and to allow the player to strive to achieve or avoid it.
) can answer a question about the Domination victory condition: Is it intentional that this victory condition is very difficult to predict?To my mind, there are two things about this victory condition which when combined can make it a game-wrecker at times. I suspect that one of these issues is an unintentional oversight and that the other is a bug. If I'm wrong about this please let us know.
It would be very helpful to know whether this behavior is intentional.The issues are:
1) There appear to be bugs in the way Domination is calculated. The Civilopedia says "Have 66% of the world's land surface within your borders." Anecdotal evidence and some testing by a couple of players has shown that the actual threshold is usually larger, often 80% or more. The percentage feels like it is different depending on map size and type. It seems that coastal tiles count in addition to land at least some of the time. And there have been at least two games reported where the Domination victory occurred at a time when a player's borders did not expand, indicating that something other than "within your borders" is also sometimes involved.
2) There does not seem to be a way for the player to know when a Domination victory is imminent. This is very different in game feel from all the other victory conditions. With all other victory conditions, it is possible to see a win or loss coming. The player can savor the satisfaction of closing in on a goal. Or can see defeat coming and can try to avoid it. The Retirement date is emphasized and there is a warning as it approaches. Approaching a conquest win or loss is obvious. There are messages about other Civs' space race progress. The player gets a chance to control the UN and when controlling it decides whether voting occurs. There is displayed information about city culture values (the player's and the rivals'), and the Histograph can be used to see whether and when a total culture score victory/loss could happen. But Domination? There's no information anywhere. One can be in the middle of an exciting war, anticipating the next military success, and wham! A Domination "victory" happens. When it happens that way it does not feel like victory at all, it can be a frustrating disappointment.
The second issue is made much worse by the first. I have not found it possible to "eyeball" the map and to make any decent guess as to when Domination might occur.
So, to re-state the question a bit differently, is it intentional that there is a victory condition which the player cannot attempt to precisely anticipate and control? I hope not - to my mind it is important in the game to be able to anticipate success or failure.
A final request related to this: If you determine that there are bugs related to the Domination victory condition, please consider NOT fixing them. If they were fixed in a future patch, that could "break" many saved games (games in progress, HOF entries) from prior versions. If the Domination threshold were changed, people would find that loading some past saves would instantly trigger it. Instead of fixing any bug(s) in this area, I think it would be great just to tell us what the rule actually is. And much more importantly, to provide a way for us to see it coming. It doesn't matter so much what the rule is, what matters is that we can see it coming. One suggestion in this regard: a possible place for this information would be the Histograph. A new choice in the "Show" drop-down for "Domination". That would make it easy to see if any Civ is approaching the 2/3 limit. (Or whatever value the limit actually is.) That would not be as precise as an actual number somewhere, but it would be sufficient to see the victory/loss coming and to allow the player to strive to achieve or avoid it.
) could use exact numeric domination information to work out whether there were any remaining small islands in unexplored parts of the ocean. Doesn't seem game altering to me.
